BG Mahesh | Mahesh | mahesh.comhttps://www.mahesh.com
Internet in IndiaWed, 23 May 2018 06:43:11 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.637689354Social Media has fueled the reach of Fake Newshttps://www.mahesh.com/media/social-media-has-fueled-the-reach-of-fake-news
https://www.mahesh.com/media/social-media-has-fueled-the-reach-of-fake-news#respondMon, 21 May 2018 06:52:38 +0000https://www.mahesh.com/?p=6382In continuation of my earlier post “False Narrative is more dangerous than Fake News“, let us look into a topic which has been discussed at great length by many – fake news. As mentioned in the earlier article, fake news has been there for decades or even centuries.

]]>In continuation of my earlier post “False Narrative is more dangerous than Fake News“, let us look into a topic which has been discussed at great length by many – fake news. As mentioned in the earlier article, fake news has been there for decades or even centuries.

Earlier fake news was published in newspapers, now it has gone digital.

These days people are busy forwarding messages on Whatsapp. Fake news is a lot more prevalent on WhatsApp than Twitter in India, this is mainly because of the reach of Whatsapp in India (over 200 million users).

Users make no effort to crosscheck if the news is for real. Forwarding jokes are one thing, but forwarding fake communal messages is another. These days people forward very old messages as current events and it is very easy to believe it happened recently. See this, this and this – all packaged for the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018.

Even when a piece of news is busted as fake and a lot of people share the correction, it is unlikely to reach even a small fraction of the number of people who have come to accept the initial fake news as fact.

The role of bots in spreading fake news

Technology is a double edge sword. Social media is a perfect platform to spread news, real & fake, to a huge user base “quickly”. Automated accounts are being programmed to spread fake news.

Facebook and Twitter bots help you to increase the “shared signal” of news articles quickly. They do this by liking/retweeting a post/tweet from several fake social media accounts.

People tend to share articles that are going viral on social media. A study by Indiana University in Bloomington showed accounts that actively spread misinformation are significantly more likely to be bots. Social bots play a significant role in spreading fake news, which goes undetected to a normal eye.

Bots alone cannot do this job. It is important the news item passes through highly connected nodes (influential users) on social media. They can achieve this only by targeting and reaching influential users. They direct these messages to influential users with the hope these users will share it, which in turn increases the credibility. Recently, Shashi Tharoor shared a fake news item and people almost believed it.

Fake News is on steroids on WhatsApp

The most popular messenger platform in India is Whatsapp. With a 200 million reach, it beats Twitter black and blue. Majority of forwards on WhatsApp are non-verified. Users most often say, “I am tired of telling my mom not to forward fake news”.

WhatsApp’s foundation has been to keep the app simple. But I strongly feel they have failed in adding features to control conversations in WhatsApp groups. I am currently struggling to get out of my UG group as one of the members keeps posting communal content.

]]>https://www.mahesh.com/media/social-media-has-fueled-the-reach-of-fake-news/feed06382False Narrative is more dangerous than Fake Newshttps://www.mahesh.com/media/false-narrative-is-more-dangerous-than-fake-news
https://www.mahesh.com/media/false-narrative-is-more-dangerous-than-fake-news#respondSun, 20 May 2018 06:04:36 +0000http://www.mahesh.com/?p=5953Fake News has been a challenge across the world. It has become so big that Fake News was Collins Dictionary’s word for 2017. Most readers are unable to differentiate between real and fake news.

]]>Fake News has been a challenge across the world. It has become so big that Fake News was Collins Dictionary’s word for 2017. Most readers are unable to differentiate between real and fake news.

Fake news has been there for a long time. Experts in India are projecting as though Fake News is a new phenomenon. Fake News has been there for centuries,

Journalists used “fake” in the 19th century to warn American consumers about products proffered by patent medicine pushers, con artists.

In 1989 newspapers started publishing made-up interviews and stories about invented battles.

Fake News is not only in the political space but in other areas like manipulation of the stock market, health care options, business (Cadbury chocolate) and Bollywood too.

Local newspapers reproduce content published by big media houses and wire services. Readers of these newspapers never questioned the authenticity of what they read. But now the times have changed with social media thriving out there.

What is a False Narrative?

False narrative happens because they have insufficient information and the inaccurate assessment.

a false narrative—a version of events that, while partly true, had been shaped, in this case by a newspaper report, to elicit strong negative emotions like anger, fear, or disgust.

When the narrative is built on fake news, it adds a lot of complexity. For a common reader, it is almost impossible to identify fake news and fake narrative. The idea behind false narrative is simple,

The bigger the lie, the more people believe it – Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister for Misinformation

I am a lot more concerned about the False Narrative,

False narratives linger in the public discourse for a long time horizon.

Once in mind, you cannot change it.

False narratives get solidified into commonly accepted truths due to the body of knowledge that gets built up over time cross-referencing material based on false narratives.

False narrative has a larger audience than legitimate news. The corrected version has a lesser audience than orignal misinformation.

People read it incorrectly.

Giving color to the news when it actually is not there

Opeds were written literally from day 1 of a famous journalist’s murder in Bengaluru, the elite had already decided who was guilty before any investigation began.

An author is taking his/her own view of an incident without any basis to give a false narrative. The main goal of the author is to harm a person, political party or even the country.

Today, in the age of TV & social media there is constant discussion of the narrative, no matter how baseless is being stretched and twisted. This may look entertaining (nightly news!) but is very harmful.

The data from a Stanford Research was so alarming that researchers stated, “At present, we worry that democracy is threatened by the ease at which disinformation about civic issues is allowed to spread and flourish.”

Digital Media has made the problem worse

Media students are taught about “WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW”, but rarely practiced.

There is a race for ‘who published first’ in digital media. Corrections to the story, if at all, can come later. Young journalists are not making calls to cross-check the veracity of what they are writing.

Most journalists in the online space depend on Twitter, TV, and print to write their articles. The same topic, especially if sensitive, are not covered the same way in each medium. By the time someone down the chain writes about it, you can expect the meaning to have changed.

At best, online publishers these days check if an image was associated with some other event before using it in an article. This can be easily done on sites like tineye.com or Google Images. But this doesn’t fix the problem of identifying false narrative.

Publishers, platforms don’t want to be policed. They want to regulate themselves. If this self-regulation fails, governments will be forced to bring in policies. The government of India tried to look into this problem, but the plans were announced in a hurry, which I believe will not see the light of the day.

How to fix a False Narrative

Fixing a false narrative is complex. An algorithm, however complex, cannot identify this problem. For now, it has to be done manually by countering such news but this is not a scalable model.

Someday if technologically this problem is solved, the problem in India is multi-fold – we publish news in multiple Indian languages. While there are efforts in the area of NLP (Natural Language Processing) focused on Indian languages, it would be interesting to see if they can come up with something to identify false narrative.

]]>https://www.mahesh.com/media/false-narrative-is-more-dangerous-than-fake-news/feed05953Challenges for the incoming Karnataka State Government in 2018https://www.mahesh.com/government/challenges-for-the-incoming-karnataka-state-government-in-2018
https://www.mahesh.com/government/challenges-for-the-incoming-karnataka-state-government-in-2018#respondThu, 03 May 2018 11:53:17 +0000https://www.mahesh.com/?p=6169Karnataka assembly election 2018 campaign is in full swing. Media and election pundits say this assembly election is a ‘litmus test for PM Narendra Modi’. From what I recall, every assembly & by-election since May 2014 has been seen as a litmus test for the Prime Minister.

]]>Karnataka assembly election 2018 campaign is in full swing. Media and election pundits say this assembly election is a ‘litmus test for PM Narendra Modi’. From what I recall, every assembly & by-election since May 2014 has been seen as a litmus test for the Prime Minister.

We can safely ignore the Manifesto of all parties. Nobody ever visits it back after elections. Nobody questions the govt on election promises. However, there are some groups and individuals in Bengaluru who have “worked with” the elected government to draw its attention to infrastructure problems we face on a daily basis. Kudos to these volunteers.

Over decades every government (irrespective of the party) has contributed to the growth of the state, especially Bengaluru. We are a major Knowledge IT Hub in the world today. Govt’s contribution cannot be ignored.

Elections will be held on May 12, counting on May 15. For complete coverage of Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018, click here.

The incoming government, to be sworn in May 2018, have a lot of work to do.

We don’t have a single tech center in our state outside of Bengaluru. Sorry, Mysuru is nowhere close to being labeled as an IT hub. In the same 5 years Pune, a city similar to Mysuru has become a substantial fin-tech center.

Even if we could not build new roads, the govt has not worked on solutions to properly manage the key tech corridors. In Bengaluru – Silk Board junction (see this hilarious short movie!), Marathahalli, Graphite India Road, ORR near Manyata are all world class bottlenecks.

Bengaluru lakes are in bad shape. Please see this excellent report from United Way Bengaluru (Disclosure: I am associated with UWBe).

Lack Of Co-ordination Between Civic Authorities

Multiple departments are involved in the completion of most infrastructure projects. We repeatedly see how things fail during the implementation of the project. Solving this is not rocket science, it requires common sense.

The road is dug up for laying water pipes, but they manage to cut electricity or phone cables. Sewage pipes are accidentally broken. These are not intentional, but due to laziness.

Bangalore Metro

We are proud of our Namma Metro. The management and Metro team has done a great job in running it. Let us not forget to thank the commuters who have ensured the station and the bogies have remained clean. We don’t see graffiti anywhere. Hope it remains this way.

Metro construction due to expansion will go on in Bangalore for more than a decade. During construction, which takes 4-5 years, the traffic is bad because only one lane is made available for vehicles. Heavy vehicles ply on these roads to deliver material to metro construction workers. Roads get damaged very quickly. We cannot avoid this, but why can’t we ensure the road is well tarred by which vehicles can move faster?

When you question the contractor about the road condition they say, “Maintenance of the road is done by BBMP, we are only building the Metro”.

Other things needed are,

Parking place near Metro stations

Far better bus connectivity to Metro stations. For this to succeed commuters too need to use these buses a lot more.

Need Metro to reach major railways stations in Bengaluru

Need a metro line to Bengaluru airport (cabs are getting expensive by the day)

Relaying of Water & Sewage Pipes

Authorities tend to give contracts to various contractors for completing the job,

To dig the road

To clear the soil which was dug out

To lay the pipes

To clear the old pipes

To retar the road (if it all!)

During digging the JCB can ruthlessly cut thru the telephone, power cables. The contractor doesn’t take the responsibility of getting it fixed. Residents have to run around to get them fixed. Shouldn’t the roadworks contractor be responsible for the end-to-end implementation?

Road Before Digging

JCB digging the road, usually cut the cables ruthlessly

Sewage Pipes to be relaid

After repair work the road is rarely fixed in a timely fashion

Who will clear this? Not me says the main contractor

I would like to believe the government wants to get the job done without troubling the residents. The government needs to inform the residents on who we need to contact in case we need help. It needs to be communicated in a professional way.

Are Major Tech Companies Coming to Karnataka?

Few important statistics of IT/BT in Karnataka (numbers could be a bit old),

Bangalore contributed $45 billion, or 38 percent of India’s total IT exports.

By 2020 Bengaluru will be employing the highest number of IT professionals.

By 2020, Bengaluru will employ 8 million (direct and indirect).

We have a sufficient number of tech companies in Bengaluru. Let the new ones go to other parts of the country. Bengaluru cannot handle additional traffic and people. However, for now, we should have attracted corporates to Mysuru. We have failed miserably in our Mission Mysuru.

Andhra Pradesh & Telangana states have been proactive in attracting new corporates which could translate to a loss of thousands of jobs in Karnataka. A premier mobile company decided to start their factory in a neighboring state because of the red tape in Karnataka. Sad. This is the case irrespective of which party is in power.

The present government has launched few good schemes for startups. It would be a lot more useful if the products being developed in govt sponsored incubators can be put to use in the real world. They should discourage startups which are full of buzzwords (AI, ML, Blockchain) and have nothing to show. Reason: Not all startups can expect to be a Unicorn, very few get funded.

Conclusion

It is not just ease of doing business not handling basic infra issues like waste management and lakes catching on fire having significantly impacted Brand Bengaluru. Having a logo for Bengaluru is nice but we need to move beyond that.

Bangalore has several Residing Welfare Associations (RWAs). Corporators, MLAs need to work closely with RWAs for building a better surrounding. I always say we cannot shift the onus completely on the government to keep our locality clean. We residents too should not throw things around.

Brand Bangalore is living on past laurels and confidence is eroding rapidly. We cannot live in the past glory, we got to make Bengaluru a better place to live in. And we should apply the learnings in other cities of Karnataka too.

A humble reminder to the party (or parties) forming the government in Karnataka in 2018 – general elections is in 2019. If you don’t show the intention to deliver in the next 8-10 months, your party will not win sufficient Lok Sabha seats from Karnataka.

]]>https://www.mahesh.com/government/challenges-for-the-incoming-karnataka-state-government-in-2018/feed06169India has a huge phubbing problemhttps://www.mahesh.com/mobile/india-has-a-huge-phubbing-problem
https://www.mahesh.com/mobile/india-has-a-huge-phubbing-problem#respondThu, 12 Apr 2018 11:21:16 +0000https://www.mahesh.com/?p=6201We in India just cannot stay away from our mobile phone. Observe what happens around while walking or driving, you often see people are using their mobile phones, even while being at the wheel!

]]>We in India just cannot stay away from our mobile phone. Observe what happens around while walking or driving, you often see people are using their mobile phones, even while being at the wheel!

I have seen in my own circle the usage has drastically increased. It is difficult to carry out a conversation without the smartphone interrupting. I was told this is called Phubbing (Phone Snubbing) or NomoPhobia

phubbing

ˈfʌbɪŋ/

nouninformal

the practice of ignoring one’s companion or companions in order to pay attention to one’s phone or other mobile device.

“phubbing is just one symptom of our increasing reliance on mobile phones and the Internet”

Recently, this table was published in Times of India. This study was carried out by Motorola among 4,418 smartphone users in US, Brazil, France, and India. Wonder how the results would turn out to be if the survey included China.

While using any tool is good, but overusing the same tool can be counterproductive. Excessive usage of digital screens is harming our eyes. Very few realize this fact. The only way to soften this problem is to look at trees.

Item

India

World Average

How many think the phone is their best friend?

65%

53%

Time spent with phone is much better than the one they love

47%

33%

Feeling compelled to perpetually check their phones

57%

44%

You check your phone more often than you would like to

65%

50%

You feel you spend too much time on your phone

48%

35%

You panic when you lose your phone

77%

65%

You want a better phone-life balance

64%

61%

This is not about how much time we are spending on the mobile, it is about not being able to stay away from the mobile device.

I think people are forgetting to spend time in a meaningful way after the new found love has arrived in their life.

]]>https://www.mahesh.com/mobile/india-has-a-huge-phubbing-problem/feed06201Traffic management during Political Rallies needs to be planned betterhttps://www.mahesh.com/government/traffic-management-during-political-rallies-needs-to-be-planned-better
https://www.mahesh.com/government/traffic-management-during-political-rallies-needs-to-be-planned-better#respondMon, 09 Apr 2018 10:34:12 +0000https://www.mahesh.com/?p=6190Karnataka is going to polls in May 2018. It is election time. The political campaign & the weather are heating up! Most political rallies in Bengaluru are held in Palace Grounds. Political rallies are very important for local leaders as it demonstrates their strength to the High Command (Delhi) of their capability to “gather” huge crowds.

]]>Karnataka is going to polls in May 2018. It is election time. The political campaign & the weather are heating up! Most political rallies in Bengaluru are held in Palace Grounds. Political rallies are very important for local leaders as it demonstrates their strength to the High Command (Delhi) of their capability to “gather” huge crowds.

Just yesterday I got caught in traffic at night on the way home from Bengaluru Airport. Blame it on my dying grey cells, I didn’t go with the recommendation from Google Maps but decided to take the usual route. A journey that usually takes 45 minutes took a horrendous 2.5 hours.

Luckily, I was on the way back from the airport. Those who were going to the airport would have missed their flight. As you neared the palace grounds the traffic got worse. You would move 100 feet every 30 minutes.

The question is can this mess be reduced? Let us get real, it cannot be eliminated. All 3 major parties in Karnataka (Congress, BJP, JD(S)) hold their rallies in and around the airport. Each of these parties causes inconvenience to the public at large. By no means I am talking about air travelers alone need to be taken into account.

To ease the burden on commuters to/from the airport the Bangalore Police can take a few simple steps,

Bangalore Police needs to work with Kempegowda International Airport well in advance of the rally day.

All airlines have the contact information of travelers flying out of and into Bengaluru on the day of the rally.

Airlines must warn these travelers about the upcoming traffic jams and advise them to plan accordingly to go out of and into the airport.

From airport block the roads that lead to the palace grounds. Absolutely no point in allowing additional traffic flow into an already existing logjam.

Not everyone reads newspapers to be aware of this upcoming traffic jam. Display huge signboards with traffic-related news on the rally day.

If the above show results, they can easily be extended for helping the commuters to/from the railway station and majestic bus stand.

]]>https://www.mahesh.com/government/traffic-management-during-political-rallies-needs-to-be-planned-better/feed06190The pain of going through re-exams in Indiahttps://www.mahesh.com/education/the-pain-of-going-through-re-exams-in-india
https://www.mahesh.com/education/the-pain-of-going-through-re-exams-in-india#respondThu, 29 Mar 2018 10:37:52 +0000https://www.mahesh.com/?p=6123Exam time is stressful in India. Re-exams for sure are very very stressful on our children. It is high time tough laws are passed on exam paper leaks.

]]>Yesterday my colleague was looking stressful. I asked him, “What happened?“, he said, “My son told me there will a re-exam for Economics paper“.

I had heard of Economics paper for CBSE XIIth being held again. But later I saw CBSE Xth Math paper too was going to be held again. A total of 2.2 million students of Xth & XIIth will have to take these re-exams.

After the conclusion of exams, it is very difficult to get children back into the frame of studying all over again.

I wonder what the scene would be in a family if they had two kids in CBSE Xth and XIIth. Actually, I don’t even want to know about it, it is scary, it is depressing.

For those who go thru re-exams, this is just not funny

The alleged mastermind of the paper leak has been held. It is not correct to ruin the peace of lakhs of families for any amount of money, but he did this for just Rs 10,000?And as expected the paper was leaked over, what else, WhatsApp.

This year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi authored a book “Exam Warriors” which talks about reducing stress during exam time. No wonder he is upset about this paper leak as the leak + re-exam has increased the stress for students and their families.

What Can Friends & The Govt Do For These Unfortunate Ones

The CBSE Board has said they will conduct re-exams for the two subjects. I still believe the government will come out with a solution to reduce the burden on the students.

The family has to play a big role in managing the child. They could be irritated, stressed, throwing tantrums. Tolerate all of it (only till the re-exam!).

For those who are not having a re-exam, please don’t post your vacation photos on social media. It doesn’t help the affected ones.

For those who are not having a re-exam, don’t tell others about your preparation for other competitive exams. The affected ones are not fortunate enough to focus on these competitive exams.

Many families had planned for a vacation, starting soon after the Board exams. Airlines, railways, hotels must allow them to cancel, change the plans without any penalty.

This doesn’t change things but the affected ones must know the entire nation is sympathetic to their situation.

If the govt punished the guilty severely and took long-term corrective measures, it will at least ensure that future generations wouldn’t have to suffer through this torture.

Students Taking Re-Exam Have Just One Question

Why aren’t these students punished?

Youths climbing the building of an examination centre to help the candidates in cheating, by passing notes through the windows, during a Matriculation examination in Hajipur, Bihar in 2015

My Stress Of A Re-Exam in 1984

I have my personal experience with leaked papers and re-exams. This happened during my 2nd PUC (XIIth) days in Bengaluru. This Board exam is crucial to every student (+family). This defines our career path.

Our Chemistry paper had leaked a day before the exam. However, the Chemistry exam was held. Next, the Math paper too had leaked. Again, the Math exam too was held.

Then the government announced the re-exam for Math (but surprisingly, not Chemistry). We were upset and it was sheer torture to study all over again.

The Karnataka Government was not satisfied even with the re-exam. They announced the creation of the now famous CET (Common Entrance Test) and for our batch, they made it the only criterion for admissions – all our hard work until then was for nothing! Within a week of the announcement of CET, tutorial classes for CET sprung up all over the city.

My friends and I came out OK through this ordeal but we still get shudders when we think back to those days. I must give full credit to the Karnataka government of that time to have conducted the CET in such a short time and in a very professional manner.

On another topic, every year students in Karnataka go through a tough time during admissions to Engineering and Medical Colleges. Every year the management of these colleges and the Government have a tussle about seat sharing. This repeats every year without fail. The court needs to put an end to this uncertainty which we all have to go through every year.

Conclusion

The media is projecting as though an exam paper leak has happened for the first time. Not true. Exam paper leaks have been happening for decades. Paper leaks have happened at the Center and in many states under the governments of all political parties.

Digital media, social media, TV has been amplifying this a lot more. In a way this is good because all educational Boards (Center and in each State) will be on their toes. But the media giving a different narrative about the leak is wrong.

Students should stay away from any violent demonstrations. Political parties will try to make use of these situations, kids could get hurt in these demonstrations. Let the student wings of the political parties fight it out, please focus on your re-exam for now.

]]>Most reports talk about internet advertising size, the number of internet users in India. But what most internet ventures want is to see is the digital consumer spending, preferably often. Boston Consulting Group & Google’s Feb 2018 report throws some light on this topic.

Number of internet users (Dec 2017): 430 Mn, growth of 2x in 4 years

Smartphone users: 68 million (2013), 430 million (2017), 4.7x growth in 4 years

Current (2017) quantum of digital transactions: $40 billion, can grow to $100 billion by 2020

The need for ‘Touch & Feel’ and discounts are the biggest barriers to shopping online

Digital Transactions Adoption in India

When compared to previous years the number of internet users in India transacting online would have increased. That is the good news. The bad news is we have a long way to go, which in fact could be good news for internet companies as they would see there is a lot of headroom for growth.

Post Demonetization in India (Nov 2016), the number of people using internet banking, wallets increased. Demonetization forced many people to start transacting online.

I firmly believe two departments in the Govt of India embraced online transactions well before ecommerce became big in India – Income Tax Department of India & Indian Railways (ticketing).

Indian Language Support Can Increase Digital Transactions in India

The above data in the table above is self-explanatory. The same report says 9 out of 10 new internet users between 2016 and 2021 will use local languages. 99% of Indian-language smartphone users access the internet using their smartphones, against a national average of 78%. Why would you not invest in the future – local languages?

Very few transactional portals have done a decent job in adopting Indian languages in their product. Most Central government sites are under the assumption a Hindi version of the site caters to all language users of India. Do only English and Hindi speaking people in India pay Income Tax? Obviously not. Income Tax dept should have gone the whole nine yards and made their site available in all Indian languages.

Travel portals could have increased their business a lot more if they had embraced Indian languages.

In my opinion, BookMyShow is the only e-commerce site in India which has done justice to Indian languages. Kudos to their team.

]]>Pitch Madison Advertising Report is the most awaited report on predictions of ad spends in the media and advertising industry. The report is launched by Pitch, in partnership with Madison World. The report talks about the ad spend in the previous and upcoming year for all mediums: Print, TV, OOH, Digital, Radio, and Cinema.

Under each sub-section I have added my thoughts.

Year

Revenue in INR Crore

Growth

2010

25,026

27.8%

2011

27,433

9.6%

2012

28,854

5.2%

2013

32,016

11.3%

2014

37,045

16.5%

2015

43,991

17.6%

2016

49,480

12.5%

2017

53,138

7.4%

Indian Ad Market Revenue 2010 to 2017

Total advertising spend in India: Rs 531.38 billion in 2017, a projection of Rs 595.30 billion for 2018

India will see a 12% growth in advertising in 2018.

2016 to 2017 advertising spend grew by 7.4% (initially projected at 13.5%). The growth was hurt due to demonetization & introduction of GST.

The Indian advertising market lost Rs 1,650 crore in the months of November-December 2016 due to demonetization.

In 2017, digital grew by a remarkable 43%, crossing the Rs 7,300 Crore mark and was the only media not affected by demonetization.

FMCG, Telecom, BFSI and Real Estate will continue to be growth drivers for Digital while e-commerce will remain the backbone of digital ad spend.

8 state assembly elections are scheduled to be held in 2018. The primary beneficiary of political ad spend will be regional newspapers.

By the end of 2018 media could see a jump in advertising revenue due to the upcoming 2019 General Elections (I pray the spend will be more online!)

Digital Ad Revenue in Indian Ad Market Revenue 2013 to 2018*

The number of Internet users in India was estimated to be 481 million in December 2017, a growth of 11.34% over December 2016 estimated figures. The number of internet users is expected to reach 500 million by June 2018, according to a report ‘Internet in India 2017’, published jointly by the Internet and Mobile Association of India & Kantar IMRB in February 2018. According to the report, as on December 2017, the overall internet penetration is 35% of total population.

While the digital ad revenues in India have improved the biggest concern amongst large publishers is that most of this revenue goes to Google and Facebook. To increase direct ad revenue, I strongly believe a publisher needs to have a huge differentiator in their offerings and most importantly pay a lot of attention to quality.

Year

Revenue in INR Crore

Growth

2013

3,050

32%

2014

3,970

30%

2015

5,120

29%

2016

7,315

43%

2017

9,303

27%

2018 Projection

11,629

25%

Digital Ad Revenue in Indian Ad Market Revenue 2013 to 2018*

TV Ad Revenue in Indian Ad Market Revenue 2013 to 2018*

TV will remain as a strong medium for advertising. Advertising on TV is far more expensive than digital, yet it manages to attract more advertising revenues than digital (sigh!).

780 mn in 2017 compared to 675 mn in 2013 viewed TV in India. Homes owning TV jumped 19% (183 mn) in 2017. The number of rural households (99 mn) with a TV outnumbered the ones in the urban area (84 mn).

Year

Revenue in INR Crore

Growth

2013

12,419

8%

2014

14,518

14%

2015

17,261

22%

2016

18,831

9%

2017

19,650

4%

2018 Projection

22,205

13%

TV Ad Revenue in Indian Ad Market Revenue 2013 to 2018*

Print Ad Revenue in Indian Ad Market Revenue 2013 to 2018*

With growing literacy, the circulation of regional newspapers is on the rise. This has helped Print medium to grow their revenues year after year.

Year

Revenue in INR Crore

Growth

2013

13,167

10%

2014

15,274

16%

2015

16,935

11%

2016

18,151

7%

2017

18,640

3%

2018 Projection

19,571

5%

Print Ad Revenue in Indian Ad Market Revenue 2013 to 2018*

Radio Ad Revenue in Indian Ad Market Revenue 2013 to 2018*

These days we get to hear a lot more political ads on the radio. With the increase in vehicular traffic jams advertising on the radio makes a lot of sense. But then spending online is what I recommend (my unbiased opinion!).

]]>https://www.mahesh.com/online-advertising/digital-ad-spend-india-will-grow-25-2018-pitch-madison-advertising-report/feed06005Advertisers demand toxic free content on Facebook and Googlehttps://www.mahesh.com/online-advertising/advertisers-demand-toxic-free-content-facebook-google
https://www.mahesh.com/online-advertising/advertisers-demand-toxic-free-content-facebook-google#respondTue, 13 Feb 2018 07:12:07 +0000https://www.mahesh.com/?p=5965Digital advertisers and users are demanding toxic free content. The eco system is worried about the harm toxic content is causing to the society. Due to scale solving this issue is a challenge. Can blockchain help?

]]>There has been a lot of talk about fake news on the internet. Facebook and Google have been under pressure to suppress fake news. Not an easy task. But now these internet giafnts have a bigger problem – being held accountable to advertisers. Advertisers want to see toxic free content.

Advertisers don’t want their branding besides toxic content. Many advertisers pulled out of YouTube advertising as their ads were seen on hate speech videos. Google fixed this quickly.

What is Toxic content? Any content that promotes fake news, hatred, hate messages from terrorists, discriminatory in nature or has explicit sexual and pornographic content can be termed as toxic content.

Why are advertisers up in arms? Simple, it is hurting families, kids are seeing all sorts of ads and this can really muddle up their thinking. It is not possible to monitor your child’s digital usage every moment.

Unilever, the world’s 2nd biggest advertiser, threatened to pull its ads from Facebook & Google unless they improve transparency about news, protect children from toxic online content, and crack down on hate speech.

Unilever does not want to advertise on platforms that do not “make a positive contribution to society”. Unilever said it “will not invest in platforms that do not protect children or which create division in society”.

On responsible platforms: Unilever will not invest in platforms that do not protect children or which create division in society, and promote anger or hate.

On responsible content: Unilever is committed to creating responsible content, initially by tackling gender stereotypes in advertising through the Unstereotype Alliance.

On responsible infrastructure: Unilever will only partner with organisations that are committed to creating better digital infrastructure, such as aligning around one measurement system and improving the customer experience.

Facebook sent out this email to their publishers and advertisers,

This email is a follow-on update to our communications and announcements in September 2017 regarding advertiser controls.

Facebook is committed to building a prosperous ecosystem for both our publishers and advertisers. We have consistently heard from advertisers that greater clarity and control over the context in which their advertisements are shown is a critical requirement. As a result, we announced in September that we would be providing advertisers with pre-campaign and post-campaign lists of publishers where their advertisements ran. The pre-campaign list is now in the process of rolling out.

As a next step, we will also be rolling out to advertisers a post-campaign list of publisher names where their ads ran, across Audience Network, Instant Articles, and Ad Breaks. In addition, we are beginning to explore options for sharing with advertisers post-campaign information about what portion of their overall Audience Network spend was spent/delivered on particular publishers. Several designs for this size transparency will be tested with advertisers so that we can select the option that best supports the health of our ecosystem.

We are taking these steps to benefit publishers as well. Our demonstrated commitments to brand safety have been positively received by advertisers, and we are optimistic about the impact that these additional functionalities will have on publisher revenue and network growth.

We are committed to brand safety for both advertisers and publishers and will also be rolling out additional features for publishers to access on Monetization Manager in the coming months. We will keep you updated on our progress and share more as we add to these efforts.Please reach out to Facebook if you have any questions about these developments.

Thank you,

The Audience Network Team

Procter & Gamble (P&G) has already slashed their digital ad budgets. P&G has been complaining about spending on non-viewable ads and ads besides toxic content. Verizon, AT&T and Walmart have similar concerns. Advertisers in India too will have the same concerns.

Facebook recently fixed holes that allowed advertisers to target campaigns by race and religion. Facebook plans to ban ads promoting cryptocurrency schemes, which is seen as scammy ads. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook had attacked advertising-supported business models for their disregard for users’ privacy.

Even current Facebookers acknowledge now that they missed what should have been obvious signs of people misusing the platform. And looking back, it’s easy to put together a long list of possible explanations for the myopia in Menlo Park about fake news. Management was gun-shy because of the Trending Topics fiasco; taking action against partisan disinformation—or even identifying it as such—might have been seen as another act of political favoritism.

Facebook also sold ads against the stories, and sensational garbage was good at pulling people into the platform.

Employees’ bonuses can be based largely on whether Facebook hits certain growth and revenue targets, which gives people an extra incentive not to worry too much about things that are otherwise good for engagement.

If the company started taking responsibility for fake news, it might have to take responsibility for a lot more. Facebook had plenty of reasons to keep its head in the sand.

]]>https://www.mahesh.com/online-advertising/advertisers-demand-toxic-free-content-facebook-google/feed05965FASTag – Electronic Toll Collection is convenient but needs improvementshttps://www.mahesh.com/etc/fastag-electronic-toll-collection-convenient-needs-improvements
https://www.mahesh.com/etc/fastag-electronic-toll-collection-convenient-needs-improvements#respondTue, 06 Feb 2018 07:32:43 +0000http://www.mahesh.com/?p=5911To save money and time at toll booths in India, FASTag is the solution. But as a product, they need to improve a lot. And it isn't that difficult to improve the shortcomings.

]]>Electronic Tolls are common in Western countries. A 2016 study by IIM, Kolkata said the country suffers losses of nearly Rs 40,000 crore per year due to delays in transportation. The study also said the delays led to consumption of fuel worth Rs 90,000 crore. India got its electronic toll tag, FASTag, in 2014.

The real push from the govt of India started in later part of 2016. From December 2017 all new cars are mandated to have FASTags at the time of registration (a very good move). Leading banks have been authorized to issue FASTags for your vehicles. The signup & activation process is straightforward. The real issue is with the product.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has authorised several banks to handle the payments part of FASTag. One can access their FASTag account by visiting the issuing bank’s website. I have my FASTag accounts with HDFC and Axis Banks. I would have preferred to have the multiple tags with one bank but when you buy a new car you are not given a choice of the bank you would like to be with, this needs to change.

A lot more has to be done about educating people about the benefits of using FASTag, after all, one saves time & money with this. Before long weekends there has to be a lot of publicity for FASTag signups. Why not have signup booths in restaurants on highways only during long weekends?

Customers should be able to move their wallet between banks (charge a nominal fee for the transfer). This will help customers to consolidate their multiple accounts to one bank.

OTP is never delivered to your mobile.

Wallet balance is not shown on the opening screen of your account, you have to go thru few clicks.

When you go thru a toll booth you don’t receive that usage notification immediately on your mobile. At times you never receive the SMS notification.

Yesterday at a toll booth I wasn’t able to use FASTag as the account was Blacklisted! I never received an SMS about this and there is no info about the reason in the account dashboard. I tried calling their toll free number for support, it says the number is not operational. I tried raising a support ticket but I could not submit without verifying the OTP (which I never received).